A Simple Game
by Daisy If You Have
Summary: A new threat rises out of the ashes of the Silver Millennium, and the girls disagree on how to handle it. AU. (formatting issues corrected 9/29-should be readable now)
1. Chapter 1: Check

Mina was, in general, a suspicious person. People never assumed it of her—she played the fool so well people rarely seemed to realize there was a constantly ticking clock contained therein, measuring each minute, each second, each minute movement of every planet.

And today, she sat with her notebook and watched as this boy with long silver hair and an atrociously bright polo shirt flip-flopped his way across campus. He seemed so different now, from the memories, when he was her equal. Well, maybe not equal. He was good. She'd allow that.

But the difference between then and now was both a lifetime and a sliver. Kunzite was still a normal college boy, and Mina was not sure if she was worried about the threat, or gripped with resentment that he had flourished for so long in the light of a normal life.

It didn't really matter. The answer was the same, ever since Rei had accidentally tipped her off that they might not be the only ones with something hidden in them on earth. She was grateful for the accident of the candle, how it had set Rei off, even though Rei herself had not really understood what she was seeing.

Mina did. She wrote down, once more, in her notebook, what she had observed. They were beginning to spark, just like she had sparked at 14, the light within them coming forward, ready to consume them.

She couldn't let that happen. The kingdom was too important. Her job was too important.

But intelligence, she imagined, was an unfortunate part of the military experience, and the most unfortunate thing about intelligence was that she had to ask her future Seer about it. Asking Michiru for help rated somewhere between a root canal and being eaten to death by rats for Mina, but she couldn't put it off any longer. If what she suspected was true, she had to act quickly.

* * *

The knock was sharp and quick, and the only way in which it surprised Michiru was that Mina was even bothering to use it. She rose from her seat in the living room and gracefully flowed her way to the door, opening it in a single fluid motion.

"Haruka is off at the car show with some of her friends, Mina, but I will of course tell her you called." She went to shut the door, and Mina hit the palm of her hand against it.

"Number one, I refuse to believe Haruka has friends who aren't me. Number two, I'm here to see you." She stepped through the door. "I brought a hostess gift." She flung a wrapped muffin from the school cafeteria.

Michiru caught it deftly. "Lovely." She set it down on the entryway table. "To what do I owe this dubious pleasure?"

Mina whirled around, saying it quickly, as if she were ripping off a band-aid. "I need your help." She quickly moved to clarify. "For Usagi, not me."

Michiru studied her for a moment. "And how might I assist you?"

"I don't know what you remember about Silver Milennium." She walked into the kitchen and took one of Haruka's beers out of the fridge, popping it open. "And you don't have to tell me, I know, you like your whole air of mystery, whatever keeps you warm at night. We—they-all died in Earth's rebellion against the Moon. Ringing a bell?" Michiru nodded silently. "Well the four assholes that led that rebellion somehow ended up following us thousands of years into the future, you know, details." She made a face as she swallowed a mouthful of beer and looked down at the label. "Peanut butter chocolate beer? Ruka, what the fuck is wrong with you, is Michiru not letting you get enough air before she chokes you in the bedroom or what?"

"Mina." Michiru was leaned against the countertop, her eyes gazing out the window. "Please make your point. So, like Pluto?"

"Naw." She hauled herself up on the countertop and sat. "More like us. A piece of something inside them." She drank again, and shook her head, as if each time it surprised her anew.

"Why, praytell, do you need me?"

"I need you to show me what happens if they awaken." Michiru moved to respond, but Mina stopped her. "I know, I know, these are the shadows of things that may be only, I promise to keep Christmas in my heart all the year, your resistance is noted."

Michiru frowned, but, seeing that Mina was going to be parked on her countertop for however long it took for her to provide an answer, moved to the sink, setting a metal bowl into the bottom of it. Michiru had never liked her visions, had never found the utility or power in them that Rei managed to convey. They were a hand from hell, continually gripping at her ankles, and she did not relish the thought of unleashing them. Not that she could make them come, always, anymore than she could make them leave. This might not even work, it was simply repeating things she knew could trigger the beast. Her sweet Haruka never mentioned it, just offered to always do any dishes by hand that needed it, wordlessly. She could not count the same for Mina. It was dangerous, letting her know the codes to her mind.

And yet the alternative was admitting to Mina that she had not control over her own power, so she simply hit the faucet and stared deep into the bowl, focusing, thinking about the shards of memory she had of Endymion's Knights, the rebellion, the fall. She saw a boy sitting at a piano, his red-gold hair pulled into a ponytail, his face soft and expressive, suddenly, she saw him upon the battelfield, three others with him, the Senshi surrounding them, but it's like a tornado, and Michiru is not sure where she's going, the action is so furious. She trips, and falls. Looking back, she sees Ami staring into the distance, lifelessly. She's tripped over her corpse. She backs up, calling out Haruka's name, but there's no answer, Michiru telling herself over and over again that she's simply out of range, her hearing is not the best, the thought pressing into her mind cannot be real. She looks up, a tall blonde boy looking down at her, a cruel smile across his face. He looks up, and her eyes follow.

The silver haired boy has run Usagi through.

Michiru clattered to the floor, her head in her hands, the force knocking her out of the vision mercilessly.

"That good, huh?" Mina looked down on her from the countertop. "I figured as much." She jumped down. "So what are we dealing with, here?"

"They killed us all." The words came through gritted teeth as she pulled herself to her feet.

"Can you look and see if we need to ice just one of them, or-"

Michiru pinned Mina against the refrigerator. "I am not here to entertain you, Sailor Venus."

"Whoa. Calm." She gently pushed Michiru away. "Sorry your shipment of Dom and pate is late, don't take it out on me."

Michiru backed away. "You know what you need to know."

"True." Mina dusted off her shoulder playfully. "You and me, we need to get the group together. This calls for action, before they can gain any powers or weapons or object permanence or anything that might be useful to them."

Michiru rolled her eyes. "I'm so glad we have you of all people to lead us."

"Well, do you disagree?"

"No."

"That's what I thought."

* * *

"We can't give them the chance to awaken." Mina was firm but not cruel, unwavering in her insistence.

Usagi's brow furrowed. "They haven't done anything wrong! You don't know if they'll even be against us!"

Mina shook her head. "If they'd awakened first, they'd have done the same to us." She considered for a moment. She didn't even like that Mamoru had been allowed to live, though she admitted that Endymion had no part in the rebellion that had destroyed the Silver Millennium. Even Saturn had only, really, seen an opportunity to act.

But these four Knights. They had led the struggle. They had killed the Queen and crumbled the kingdom.

She would not let them a second time.

"No, Usagi, I'm sorry." She tilted back her chair, giving a casual air to her called hit, as if she were a mob boss who did this every day. "You don't have to be involved."

Usagi tried to fight the tears back, and shook her head. "No. I'm the Princess! I say no."

Mina flicked her eyebrow in irritation, thundering the chair back to the stared up at Usagi. "I'm sorry, Princess. I'm not going to let the whole kingdom, the whole world, go down for you. Not again."

The silence fell like a gavel in the room, none of the Senshi knowing what to say, the words zipping through their heads like mayflies. Usagi did not even know how to meet Mina's gaze, stumbling and stuttering, until finally she found the words.

"I said, we're not doing it."

Mina's eyes took on a particular focus, a keen wildness like a tiger stalking prey. "You are the leader in peacetime. But now is the time for martial law. I won't let you get us all killed again."

Rei was the first to speak up, jumping to her feet. "She's your princess! We follow her."

"To what? Your deaths?" Mina shook her head. "This is the wrong choice. Usagi." Usagi looked up at her. "I'm not going to let you get yourself killed. I'll do this if I have to do it alone."

Rei stood behind Usagi, shock and anger coloring her face. "You can't just do that!"

Mina slowly stood up. "I can and I will. If she lets them live, we all die. Who's with me?"

The table looked back and forth, nobody wanting to make the first move, Rei already firmly enshrined behind Usagi. And then Haruka stood, slowly, pushing her hair back in her thoughtful, nervous way, and let her hand come down the back of her neck, lingering just a moment on her shoulder before she dropped it, standing behind Mina, her eyes downcast. Michiru stood up quickly and stood next to Haruka, her arms crossed, her eyes drilling into Rei's as if daring her, refusing to even attempt to explain herself.

Rei sneered. "Well, that was predictable. You two can't even-"

Usagi's voice was tearful. "Rei, stop."

Mako thundered her fist down on the table and rose behind Usagi, followed by Ami's quiet shuffle behind their princess.

Pluto sighed heavily. "A house divided against itself cannot stand. Please. Sit down, we can talk this over. We can find a solution."

"I've got one." Mina was curt. "You all stay here while the big kids do the work. You know I'm right, Pluto. You were literally there the first time this happened. Don't be so stupid."

"The past only informs the future. It does not drive it." She fiddled with the swirled ring on her hand. "I—" but she simply stood, and moved behind Usagi. Her princess. Serenity's child. She could never stand against her. It had not, she realized mattered if she had seen the future at all.

All eyes turned to Hotaru, leaning back in her chair staring at the two factions. She tugged at the lace edge of her shirt. "I don't trust any of you."

Rei pointed her chin. "Hotaru, remember when those two tried to kill you? Do you want to side with them to kill someone else?"

"Do you want to fly under the banner of someone who believes a war can be won bloodlessy?" Michiru's voice was all at once soft and stern, unyielding even in its delicacy.

"Oh you don't even care, you're just there to protect Haruka." Rei snorted.

"I can take care of myself." Haruka leaned toward Rei.

Mina put up her hand. "Shut up, both of you. Hotaru, you want to go with us, or do you want to sit back while everyone dies? Those are your choices."

Hotaru nodded. Mina was a lot of things, as a leader, but she wasn't a liar. Lying was the greatest sin. If she thought they would die, she must honestly believe it. She stood up and walked over by Mina's side.

Usagi's face fell. "I don't want to fight you!"

Mina stood. "Then don't get in our way, Princess, while we do what needs to be done."

* * *

Usagi might have believed that they would never go through with it, in her deepest heart, but to her credit, she still had her girls keep an eye on the boys who would be Knights. Jadeite was sitting, legs crossed, in the college library, studying a book of financial theory, while a tall and very dark woman shelved books behind him, seemingly endlessly, rolling the cart from one side of the shelves to the other.

Jadeite was not sure what a librarian was doing here at 9 at night, but he didn't consider it long. There was too much work to be done, the tick-tack typing the only sound aside from an errant cart wheel.

He did not hear her, she simply appeared before him, a girl with green hair and the sea in her eyes. He lingered over the beauty of her face, delicate and faraway, when he noticed the dagger in her hand. She did not say a word, simply pounced across the table, the dagger slicing toward his throat, stopped only at a few inches by a staff driven into the table.

Both he and the girl looked up at his savior, dark and intimidating but somehow familiar. He couldn't quite place why, and did not spend much time considering it, weaseling under the table.

Michiru pursed her lips in irritation. "Pluto, I have no wish to hurt you."

"Nor I you, Neptune." Her eyes softened for a moment. "Michiru."

Michiru paid no mind to the use of her own name, simply withdrew quickly from the table and began to bend under it, and it surprised everyone in the room when the tip of Pluto's staff cracked against her jaw, sending her reeling back against the wall.

"I serve my Queen." Pluto stood still a statue in front of Michiru.

Michiru sneered, rubbing her jaw.. "You serve the memory of a love that never was." She leapt to her feet and batted away her staff with her buckler, Pluto barely having time to move away before the dagger sliced her side.

She reacted quickly, a firm swipe of her staff blocking another blow. Michiru jumped, striking her across the face with her buckler, Pluto falling onto her back with the force of it, rolling onto her side and tripping Michiru with her staff, blocking her once more as she attempted to move on Jadeite, huddled under the table, frozen as a mouse before a snake.

"Pluto!" Her face was hot with frustration.

They both wheeled to their feet, and Pluto was not quite quick enough, a red gash appearing on her side. She barely felt the pain of it, her adrenaline flowing, but she considered for a moment that Michiru might, in fact, kill her to achieve her goal. She touched her ring delicately, a quiet cry for help, and swung again at Michiru, her ducking underneath it now, suddenly in Pluto's face, the glimmer from her dagger bright as a solar flare in her eye.

It clattered to the floor, accompanied by a whistle of air. They both looked left, where Rei stood, aimed and ready, her bow drawn.

She glared. "I don't have to miss."

Michiru stepped back for a moment, smiling politely. "It seems I'm outvoted at the moment." She touched the ring on her hand. "If that's the way we want to do it, then, I suppose, we shall."

"See, now it's a party." Mina stepped out of the shadows. "Little more even."

Mako and Ami appeared behind Rei, like three wise men following a star, and Mina leaned against a bookshelf and clicked her tongue. "I've taught you three nothing."

As if on cue, the bookshelf next to them came crashing down on top of them, Haruka rubbing her hands together on the other side. She smiled and moved toward Michiru.

"If you stand close together, it's easy to wipe you all out in one blow, how many times have I said this!? No one listens to me." She shook her head and laughed as if they were at a training session, the bookcase rumbling, Mako growling underneath it as Ami slipped out from the space she'd left.

Ami looked up at Mina with rage in her eyes, almost vibrating with it, but she said nothing.

Mina strolled over to where Rei and Pluto were helping Mako get the bookcase off herself. "What's the deal, little blue, you got something for me? Aw, you're crying."

Ami wiped away a tear, berating herself internally for the way her rage always turned to tears. Mina turned her back to talk to Haruka, and Ami tackled her to the ground, getting in a couple good punches to the neck before Mina threw her off and stumbled to her feet.

She smoothed her hair. "Okay, listen, this has been great, but—" her eyes flicked over to where Mako adjusted her tiara, a stare of dedication on her face.

Then there was a gurgle from under the table, and the smooth metallic song of metal leaving flesh. Hotaru looked up from her bloodied glaive, straight at Pluto, a look in her eyes almost resembling apology. Jadeite fell from his curled position, eyes gazing into nothingness now as the red river streamed from his mouth.

Michiru stepped forward and placed her hand on Hotaru's shoulder, following her eyes to Pluto. "We serve our Queen."


	2. Chapter 2: Capture

Haruka slugged the bag in front of her, and was pleased at the rebound. It was a little hollow, though. It didn't move, didn't hit back, didn't challenge her in any way. She felt a little guilty. The other girls had all been focusing on what this split meant for the team, what it meant for the defense of their Princess.

Haruka was mainly upset that the gym had become boring.

She and Mako had sparred, almost weekly, here in the gym, in the little ring they had set up in one corner. Sometimes they even used wood versions of their weapons. The other girls didn't quite understand how they could enjoy it so well, with every hit landing hard, plenty of bruises and tender ribs on both sides.

But she and Mako were brawlers in a way the other girls couldn't understand, and the heat of competition, the freedom to never pull the punch with each other, knowing they could take it, that was a friendship they both treasured, even if most of the communication was in grunts and punches, and the occasional treat of frozen yogurt after, Haruka burying hers in so many toppings it could hardly be called a healthier alternative any longer.

And now she just had a bag in front of her, the sand yielding easily to even her slowest hit.

And she couldn't help but feel a small sense of loss.

It was right, what they were doing. Mina and Michiru both said so, and she trusted them with her life. Hotaru didn't agree with anything Haruka did, hadn't for years, and now here they were on the same side. So there had to be merit in it.

She hit the bag again, harder.

* * *

"Cool it, Wednesday Addams, I know you think you're hot shit now that you have a kill under your belt, but we need to consider this carefully." Mina brushed the hair from her face, holding a frozen bag of peas to her cheek.. Usagi's crew had gotten the drop on them this time, and it wouldn't happen again, she could guarantee that.

"If we move right now, they won't be expecting it." Hotaru leaned over from her spot in Michiru's plush chair. "They'll expect us to regroup. Why are we doing what they're expecting?"

Haruka lay on the floor, eyes closed. "Why is there talking? Please stop talking."

Mina chuckled. 'How are the shards of brick wall in your head, Ruka?"

"Hey!" she pointed in Mina's general direction, eyes still closed. "I dumped her on her ass, I'll have you know." She laughed cheerfully. "She didn't even see it coming, dropped it right behind her, her back's gonna be sore for a week."

"I'm ever so pleased you and Mako feel as if you can treat this like some romper-room playtime." Michiru sat sipping tea, acting as if the cut above her eye wasn't swelling by the moment.

That was enough to rouse Haruka, and she turned onto her stomach and laid her head on her crossed arms. "I'm not playing, Michi, it's just…kinda funny, that's all."

"It absolutely is not funny. Rei, and Ami, and Pluto, and yes, even Mako, they're all very dangerous and very driven, and you would do well to remember that."

Mina pointed her bag of peas at Mina. "I note an absence in that list."

"Usagi's greatest power is the loyalty that binds those four to her, even unto death."

Mina looked off into the distance. "I'm not disloyal to Usagi, Michiru. That's not what this is about." There was a slight growl in her voice.

"Disagreement on a matter of policy, then." She smiled. "I suppose that's all."

Mina looked at her, the smile gone from her lips. "You wouldn't oppose Haruka to save her? Are you on my side because Haruka is? Or because it's the right choice?"

Michiru took an uneasy breath, the three girls all staring in expectation. "You can hardly equate your relationship with Usagi with mine and Haruka's. You are a soldier in service. We're bound together by no duty but to our hearts." She smiled down at Haruka. "Our love."

Haruka smiled goofily, but Mina just rolled her eyes. "Touching. Answer the question."

Michiru looked sideways at Mina, frustrated at the way Mina always countered her misdirections. She shrugged. "I knew Haruka would see the merit of your decision. I trust in her."

Mina shook her head, but slumped back into the couch and didn't offer an argument. Liar, she mouthed, but Michiru simply looked down at her tea and ignored the comment.

"So what do we do?" Haruka spoke from the rug. She never really got what it was about Mina and Michiru that set them against each other, but like a dog sensing a thunderstorm, it made her want to hide under the bed as soon as it prickled in the air.

Mina sighed. "I think we have to divide. We have to try stealth. Which, Haruka, for your information, is when you try to do something quietly."

"I know what stealth is, Mina."

"I've seen you play video games, you have no idea what stealth is."

Hotaru giggled behind her soda, but stopped herself immediately and straightened up, so eager to be taken as an adult. She was an adult, wasn't she? Couldn't she kill just like the rest of them? A darker thought loomed. Was she just like them? She looked at Michiru, now kneeling on the rug next to Haruka, playfully tossing her hair. No, not like them. She had never lied to Jadeite,never made him think she was his friend, his family. She had some sort of moral.

She was not a liar.

But she was a solider, and as a solider, she felt she deserved to have some consideration from her peers.

"I think I know what we should do."

* * *

Haruka looked over the edge of the building, down where Kunzite sat on a hill, reading a book, blissfully unaware of the fate that was about to befall him. Haruka had volunteered for the job. Kunzite was the biggest, and Haruka didn't want any of the other three getting hurt in the attempt—though looking down at him dangling a flip flop off the edge of his foot, there might have been no worry at all.

She paced back to the middle of the roof, and touched the hilt of her sword. She was not entirely unkind. She would make the whole affair as quick as possible. She'd get him from the back, he wouldn't even see it coming. He wouldn't have time to be afraid.

She moved to walk back to the edge of the roof when she noticed a familiar figure in front of her.

Mako put her hands on her hips. "Going somewhere, Uranus?"

"Let's make this easy on both of us, but mostly you. Just let me through. I got work to do."

"No. I promised her I would keep you from killing him." She cracked her neck. "And I will."

"You know, back in the gym, I used to let you beat me, Jupiter." She stretched back a shoulder, grinning.

"So you say." she returned the smile with a laugh.

Haruka drew her sword, and Mako flipped her spear over her shoulder, both of them just the hint of a smile on their faces. The brawlers, Mina had called them, tall and broad and built to clash against force, resilient to pain and weakness, they could take nearly any blow to anything but their heart. She hadn't meant to make it sound quite so sappy, she'd later explained, she'd mostly meant to call them big wusses, but wine always made her soft.

Force, they say, is mass times acceleration, and whatever one missed in one category, they made up for in the other, their strength equaled out as they clashed against the sky the drove them both, somehow unconscious of the storm whipping up around them, people flocking indoors as the wind galed and the lighting crashed in the sky, a control neither of them even realized they posessed in this lifetime.

Haruka swung wildly at Mako, narrowly missing her neck. She lunged forward, Haruka dodging the point of her spear with a quick sideways motion, leaping a few feet away. Mako turned around, staring directly at Haruka, the fight now so bred into them that they no longer recognized each other as anything but foe, anything but a challenge to be won, the loser had to buy the next round of frozen yogurt and take all the gentle jabs.

Mako crossed her arms and bowed her head, sending a bolt firing across the small expanse between them, Haruka not quite quick enough to evade it entirely, striking her in the shoulder. A wave of pain moved through her, and she brushed it to the side as she fell to her knees, burying the side of her fist in the concrete, the earth rumbling beneath her hand and exploding at Mako's feet.

Mako blinked and took a deep breath, the aching in her back overwhelming. She gritted her teeth and quickly sprung back to her feet, but Haruka was already on top of her, a tornado of fists and steel.

"Face it Jupiter, you're my little sister!" Haruka laughed a bit as their weapons clashed.

"Older, yeah, too bad age doesn't make talent, eh?" She smiled in spite of herself, the fray something that drove her, just like when they sparred at the gym, a few more bruises, powers open for use, and weapons—but just like it all the same. Haruka whirled around her to land a blow on her back, jumping with a grin,but Mako just tipped her spear behind her, the decision of an instant.

And then the storm stood still.

The spell broken, Mako looked behind her, Haruka backing away, holding the space right above her stomach.

She dropped her sword at her side. "I lost."

Mako suddenly wasn't having fun anymore. "Haruka?" The pain in her back screamed in return, or was that in her chest? It felt hollow, empty.

Haruka looked up at her, and coughed, leaving a gentle flecking of blood on her lips. " I lost." She struggled to take a deep breath, collapsing to her knees. "Michiru…I…"

Mako's eyes widened, and she dropped her spear, rushing to Haruka's side. "Hang on. It's okay. "

Haruka smiled, blood tinting her teeth in an overly-cheerful pink. "You're better 'n me."

Mako shook her head. "Lucky hit."

Haruka gasped, coughing, steeling herself against Mako. "I…Michi…"

"God, this is so fucked up." She tried to hold Haruka up. "Just stay with me. I'll get Michiru, and Hotaru, they'll fix you."

Haruka moved to say something, but the air wouldn't come.

"Haruka, don't do this. Please don't fucking do this." She closed her eyes, but all it did was bring into perfect focus the harsh, wet quality of Haruka's quick breaths. "Please." She called for the girls over and over again, wondering what was taking them so long. How could this happen? Why was it her?

Haruka's eyes became hazy as she relaxed against Mako's shoulder, chest heaving, still just looking at her, not even angry, simply surprised at what was happening. Her eyelashes began to flutter against her cheeks, her mouth still forming that one word over and over. Michiru.

Mako shook her. "Haruka, I—" her voice cracked. "I can't have killed you, man. Please."

She felt Haruka stiffen against her for a moment, a small stream of blood dripping from her mouth. And then, she relaxed, the most horrible weight Mako had ever lifted falling against her. "No. No. no no no no no." She gently laid Haruka on the ground, her uniform having faded from her, looking every inch Mako's old friend in her now-bloodstained grey sweater and jeans. A sob broke from Mako's throat. "Fuck you!"

There was a shimmer of light, and Mako looked up to see Usagi's group in front of her. Rei's face fell first, and she quickly turned away, trying to grab Usagi's arm. But Usagi had already seen, and rushed to Haruka's side.

She touched her shoulder gingerly, as if there was any threat she might hurt her now. "Haruka? You're still teaching me to drive…" It was such a small detail, almost meaningless, but the gravity of it broke Mako.

Pluto laid a hand on Mako's shoulder in reassurance, and softly closed Haruka's eyes. "Poor child." She wasn't sure which one of them she was speaking to.

"I didn't mean to, Usagi. I didn't." Mako shook her head, knowing Usagi would forgive her, knowing she would never forgive herself.

Rei stomped over. "It's not your fault, Mako. She chose her side. Usagi, don't look." She took Usagi by the shoulders and tried to raise Usagi up, but she broke into a sob.

"I never wanted this to happen!"

Ami lightly touched Mako's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

There was another flash of light, and they all looked back to see the three stragglers behind them. Everyone gasped instinctively as Michiru stumbled forward.

Rei reached out to her. "Michiru…"

"Get away from her!" It was somewhere between a command and a cry, and they instinctively jumped back, save for Usagi, who simply held Haruka's hand and continued her sobs.

Michiru pushed her away, shoving her to the ground. "This is your fault." The growl came low. "If you'd listened to Mina, she'd still be alive!" She knelt by Haruka, her hands shaking, barely wanting to touch her, knowing the familiar soothing sound of her heartbeat would be absent.

Rei stood between her and Usagi. "That's not true, if Mina had fallen into line, she'd still be alive."

Michiru cradled Haruka's head in her lap, stroking her hair. "My girl…my sweet girl."

"Goddamnit Haruka." Mina's voice turned Rei from Usagi for a moment. "Why didn't you call for help, you big fucking idiot?" She bit her lip. "Goddamn.."

Pluto went to touch Michiru on the shoulder, but she pulled away. "Leave us alone." She looked up at Mako. "Murderer. I suppose now we know, there are no rules."

"Michiru, I didn't mean to—"

"I don't imagine the tree cares much about the intention of the lighting when it splits." She looked down at Haruka, wiping the blood from her face with the edge of her dress. "Oh, Ruka."

"You should go." Mina offered a general command to the air. "You've done enough here."

Rei nodded and took Usagi by the arm, Pluto and Ami half-carrying Mako. They left in a zap, Mina watching them as they left.

Hotaru's voice was soft as she sat by Haruka's legs. "Papa." The sorrow of lost forgiveness echoed in her voice, and she was grateful no one had heard her.

Mina squeezed haruka's shoulder. "I promise we'll win for you, buddy. I promise. We'll protect those assholes against their will."

Michiru looked up at Mina. "I want them all to pay."

"I'm pissed too Michiru, but this is about a job. It's our duty to protect her." She shook her head. "We kill the Knights. That's what we do. Do it as terribly as you want."

"No, your duty is to protect Usagi. My duty does not own me. I have none. I don't care if every single one of them burns for this. I hope they do."

"Look, you're upset. I'm upset. We need to channel that." She took Michiru by the shoulders. "I need you to keep it together long enough to carry out our mission. That is what Haruka DIED trying to do." Michiru's gaze wandered off, like a buoy floating unmoored in the sea, and Mina shook her. "Michiru!"

She spoke in a perfect calm. "Yes. I understand."

* * *

The house was dark and quiet, Michiru having sent everyone away, not realizing when the daylight had slipped from her, just turning Haruka's wedding band over and over in her hand, a feeling growing inside her , the tide receding, receding, maybe going too far back, further than it has before, watching, waiting.

She closed her eyes, but Haruka was there. Always there. Laughing. Kissing her. Happy. Grey. Cold. Dead. Her hands shook as she clasped both of them around the ring.

Upstairs, there was a metallic ping as the bathroom faucet ripped off the vanity, the water shooting into the air. The showerhead came next, water bubbling like a spring from Hades itself. Michiru sat downstairs, gripping the ring tighter and tighter, her nails digging into the back of her hand, the blood slowly leaking forth as if filtered through snow.

The hiss from the kitchen of the sink. The dishwasher.

The hoses outside, gushing and flowing.

The tsunami roared forward.

And Michiru smiled.


	3. Chapter 3: Promotion

"Tragedy strikes a local family today as the young man found in the river two days ago is identified. Zoi-" The TV flicked off, Rei dropping the remote onto the table and putting her hand on Usagi's

"You don't want to watch that." She could not meet Usagi's gaze. They had tried, with everything they had, to protect these boys, and now two of them were dead. And Haruka. Her death had weakened everyone's resolve a bit, she noted. Mako rarely spoke, still making dinner for everyone silently, chewing on her lip, asking that everyone stay out of the kitchen. She cooked endlessly, the rolls and cakes and intensive entrees piling up on the counters.

Most of their group had lost their appetite anyhow.

Fucking Haruka, she thought. If she hadn't joined up with Mina, if she hadn't gone alone to take out Kunzite, if she hadn't acted like the whole thing was a game...Haruka ruined everything. The image in her mind of Michiru betraying a tear as she kissed Haruka in her coffin lodged behind her sternum and squeezed. But no, Michiru should never have stood against Usagi if she wasn't prepared to lose everything. Their job was to protect her.

The idea that there were different ways of trying to do that was brushed away.

Usagi suddenly burst into tears. "I never wanted anyone to get hurt!" Was she crying for Jadeite, and now, it seemed, Zoisite? Or Haruka? It didn't matter, she supposed, and touched Usagi's shoulder gently.

"It was their fault, not yours."

"Is it so important whose fault it is?" Ami looked up from her spot in the corner where she read her book. Fault had become a very tender phrase to her. Mako kept saying it.

Rei put her hands on her hips, almost happy to have a reason to be mad. "Of course it matters! How could it not matter? If they hadn't decided to go against orders, none of this would have happened!"

"I see." Ami stood up and set her book down on the side table.

"It's not our fault, Ami, it's theirs." Rei looked at her, challenging.

"It's tragic, I think, yes." She turned her back and walked toward the kitchen. Mako had been heavily on her mind for the last week. She had seen her in the gym over and over, sparring with herself as if she were reenacting the fight, trying to make it end another way, where she could win but Haruka could live. She always found herself back at the start point, playing again, trying something else.

Ami had said something once of she believed this was how the game of chess started, but Mako offered no smile or question to her little tidbit, none of her usual interest in Ami's offerings.

She walked into the kitchen, a messy disarray of flour and butter and various vegetables. Mako was stirring a pot filled with chicken and vegetables, stirring milk and flour into it slowly. Ami looked over at the countertop. A crust rolled out into a baking dish sat there expectantly. Chicken pot pie. Haruka's favorite.

Ami steeled her resolve. "It could've been you, you know. Do you think Haruka'd be beating herself up?" It sounded silly as soon as it came out of her mouth.

Mako snorted. "Did you ever MEET Haruka?" She ground some pepper into the pot, her voice quieter. "Besides, it wasn't me, was it? It was her."

"It was an accident."

"No it wasn't. I wanted to win." She stirred absentmindedly a few more times and poured it into the waiting pastry. "I killed her. I'm a murderer."

Ami's voice took on a pleading tone. "Michiru didn't mean that. She was upset."

Mako's voice boomed through the kitchen, "Oh? I wonder why!" She slammed the wooden spoon down on the countertop, and it snapped in half, clattering to the ground.

Ami jumped, just a little, but tried again to reach out for Mako's arm.

"Don't." She pulled away. "Just go away, okay?"

Ami touched her hand back to her chest and slowly walked out of the kitchen, the smell of chicken and cream souring in her nose.

* * *

"Hotaru?" A knock came at her door. "Hotaru, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Dad! I just have a headache." She rolled over on her bed and faced the wall. Her parents meant well, she supposed. Life hadn't exactly been kind to them either, what with her disappearing and reappearing and the media circus after all that. Life had finally settled down for them.

She figured that trying to tell them she was a galactic warrior princess was more likely to get her dragged to yet another therapist than anything.

But she had run out of people to talk to. Mina wasn't really the kind of person you chose to confide in, and she was so busy thinking about the 'plan' that she didn't have time for hand-wringing. She blew off any mention of how anyone felt, most of all herself. Hotaru recognized the bluff. Haruka was gone. And Michiru was missing, had been missing since the day they laid Haruka in the ground. Everyone else was the enemy, weren't they?

Hotaru was very much alone.

She kept thinking of Jadeite, how he looked at her, fear and sadness and pain in his eyes as she gutted him through. But isn't this what she was always meant to do? She was a soldier, and soldiers killed. And they died...she thought of Haruka, lying on the ground, still and quiet for the first time Hotaru could remember.

This was life. This was the way things were. There was no point in crying over any of it, that wasn't what an adult and a soldier would do, that wasn't what Michiru would do, that wasn't how Mina wanted her to-

"I'm the avatar of death, for Christ's sake!" She yelled to no one in particular.

And no one answered.

* * *

Rei tossed off her jacket onto the couch, her usual desire for order cast aside. She had enough of her thoughts to organize. They would have to redouble their efforts to protect Kunzite and Nephrite, of course, once Mina's group found their bearings again. She needed Mako to focus, and Ami to stop focusing so much on Mako. Pluto wasn't helping at all, all the eons of knowledge of human history proving useless, sorry that all she had was a view of the past, sorry she couldn't have seen what would happen to Haruka, Rei scolding her again for bringing it up.

Being the leader wasn't as much fun as she had imagined.

She sat down on the couch, rubbing her hands together. Focus. That's all she had to do. She had heard rumors that Michiru was missing, and other side wasn't willing to either confirm or deny it. She slid the lighter out of her pocket and turned it over in her hand, her thumb brushing the engraved letters on the front. _Rei._ Mina had drawn her in the gift exchange all those years ago, and Rei had been genuinely touched at the thoughtfulness of it. I just got tired of seeing you with those cheap plastic jobbies, she'd said. But she smiled when she said it.

Didn't matter now. She flicked open the lighter, and stared deep into the flame, breath coming and going slowly. Slowly, like a wave into the shore. The sea, the salt of the sea, she could smell it now, closer and closer. Michiru. She needed to focus on Michiru. She caught a glimpse of her on the edge of the flame, just the edge of her hair. And then she felt Michiru boring into her, and suddenly a great wave came up over her consciousness and nearly threw her back with the force of the block. She dropped the lighter to the ground, the flame extinguished, her hands shaking. She had never known Michiru to be so strong before—Rei had always secretly prided herself on having more control than Michiru. She'd blocked her before, sure, but never with so much immediacy and power.

She jumped when she heard the knock at the door, and it was only through the muscle memory of the past that she immediately went to the door and flung it open.

There stood Mina, leaning against the doorframe.

Rei touched her ring, but Mina lifted up her hands. "I'm not here to fight you. I should thank you." She walked through the door, breezing about as if she owned the place. Her arrogance was infuriating, her casual carelessness as she swanned over to the window. "I don't even have to do anything anymore. Michiru's unleashed. You know," she leaned against the windowframe, "for a long time, I thought I was the only one who had something sleeping inside her. I was wrong." She looked back at Rei. "You've let slip the squid of war, as they say."

"So she's mad." Rei walked toward Mina, still tense.

"Mina laughed "No, no, she's not mad at all. What she is, is dedicated. We all lost our powers, mostly, in this lifetime, didn't we? The shards of whatever we're descended from didn't carry over the whole kit and kabodle. You can see in the fire, you can throw a decent fireball...but you can't bend it to your will like Mars did."

"And?"

"And so I thought that was just the deal. But no, Michiru-"

Rei's mouth dropped open, and sudden realization hitting her. "You're kidding me."

Mina shook her head. "She's unbound."

"Zoicite-"

"Was sitting peacefully by the river when it grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him to the bottom until the last bubble came up." Mina sauntered toward her, ever closer, in that over-familiar way Rei both loved and loathed.

She rolled back her shoulders, chin held high. "So how do we stop her?"

Mina leaned in, too close, and smiled. "I have no intention of stopping her." She turned on her heel and walked back to the window. "She's getting the job done."

"Killing all those boys won't make Haruka's dying not your fault." It was blunt and cruel, like slitting a throat with a dull knife.

Mina looked back over her shoulder, eyes flushed with rage. "Haruka wasn't my fault."

"You think she's going to stop with the knights, Mina!? You think she'll ever be done? YOU want her to rage and kill, because you get to have your revenge without getting your hands dirty! You used her like you used Haruka, just manipulating her to your will!"

"I didn't use Haruka!" Rei was sent reeling by the feel of Mina's fist on her jaw, her knee in her stomach before she could react, now on her back on the floor, Mina on top of her, and she barely rolled out of the way before Mina punched down hard, ramming her fist into the floor.

Rei grabbed her by the hair and pulled, throwing her over onto her side, pinning her down and grinding her into the floor. Mina stopped for a second, and then threw up her leg, throwing Rei back over and straddling her, Rei fighting all the while. Her fist broke free and slammed into Mina's jaw, throwing her back against the couch.

Mina rocketed back at her, throwing her to the ground, the two of them whirling and intertwined, grabbing at each other desperately, clothes shifting and exposing skin, the heat of the two of them impossible to ignore next to the cool of the floor.

It reminded Rei of a much more pleasant time, that seemed so far away now.

Mina broke from the tangled mess, stood and started to grab at her ring, when Rei called out. "Mina, no, I just bought the coffee table!"

They both stopped, Rei not even knowing why she felt that detail mattered in the moment. They looked at each other, Rei's mouth open and panting as she sat on the floor, Mina looking down at her with a quizzical and slightly unimpressed look.

And then they both began to laugh.

Mina slid to the floor and looked over at Rei. "Man, how did things get so fucked up?"

"I don't know, Mina." She scooted over toward her, picking the lighter off the ground. "Can't we, not, I mean..." But it was too much. The will it would have taken to ask Mina to come back, to come home, was too great a blow to Rei's pride, and so she sat, and simply looked at the floorboards, flicking her lighter open and shut.

Mina looked over at Rei, and smiled. "Once I've dispatched all of them we can be friends again."

"I have to stop you." She stayed focused on the floorboards.

"You can try." Mina rose to her feet, dusting herself off, and started toward the door. "You can try."

* * *

Rei stood behind Michiru, watching her closely as she sat by the pool, in her ubiquitous black swimsuit and her large sun hat, reading a book as if nothing had ever happened. Rei leaned against the wall, wondering what she could possibly say to Michiru, what to even ask her, having no idea what to expect. She wasn't sure how long she had been standing here, just watching. Time seemed to dissolve anymore.

She had begun to have dreams, intrusive dreams, flashes of memory and memories yet to come, confusing yet horrifying. And endless. She was sure Michiru was coming for her in sleep, drilling into her mind and filling it with the same dreams she had suffered from all of her life. But why? That was the thing. Why would Michiru tell her where she was going to be, when she had managed to evade her and Pluto so skillfully. Mina would never admit it, but she was a little afraid of Michiru now, happy enough to keep her distance.

Maybe Mina hadn't been lying. Maybe Michiru did manage to tap into all that power.

But she looked like she always had, in this moment, casually sunning herself. It was hard to imagine that she was anything other than the well-meaning, out of touch, charmingly snobby Michiru. Mina had to have it wrong. Mina always jumped to conclusions anyhow.

And the Michiru sat up, looked at her, and smiled her polite smile. Rei felt a chill she could not explain shoot through her as Michiru rose from her seat, setting her book down softly. She walked toward the edge of the pool, and it was only now that Rei noticed the tall, slight boy with the brunette hair pulled into a ponytail.

Nephrite.

A million thoughts raced through her mind, each outrunning the other. Who should be watching him, where were they, she can't possibly be willing to kill him in front of all these people, Michiru what are you doing? But mostly it was all overwhelmed by a growing sense of dread within her, and she raced to the edge of the pool.

"Michiru, don't!" She went to tackle her, but was greeted by a thick jet of water, blasting her back against the wall, her body ripping with pain. She heard the screams of the crowd in the pool, the thundering of feet as they ran toward any available exit, trying to escape the water witch that would haunt their dreams forever.

Rei tried calling out again, but there was no answer, Michiru standing calmly by the side of the pool, Nephrite standing still in the shallows and looking at her as if charmed by a siren, unable to move, unable to speak. Michiru seemed almost gentle as the water began to slowly wind its way up Nephrite's legs, twin serpents moving to their shared goal. She delicately turned her hand and guided the stream, her other hand delicately raised to keep Rei pinned.

"Michiru, you can't do this!" Rei screamed at her, more frightened than she was willing to admit. Michiru had never been the soul of empathy, more practical and reasoned when it came to anyone but Haruka. Haruka had softened her, people had said, but Rei had never imagined how much truth was in that statement until she saw her at the edge of the pool, laughing lightly, each note of it like a chilling melody in some horror movie, her ears unhearing of any cry for mercy, her eyes only sighted on the man she deemed worthy of death.

It wasn't even for Usagi anymore, Rei knew. It was just that someone needed to feel the pain and loss that Michiru felt, and if these boys could provide that for her, so much the better.

Nephrite seemed to be pulling out of his hypnosis, understanding the trouble he was in, stuttering as he called out to Michiru. "Wh-what do you want? Please. Please!" He tried desperately to wriggle away from her watery tentacles, but she only tightened her grasp.

Rei finally remembered that she was a sailor senshi, and transformed calling for help as she did so. She shot a fireball into Michiru's wall of water, but it extinguished immediately, Michiru still not turning to her, but no longer taking her time, almost irritated as she waved her hand and pulled Nephrite into his chlorinated grave. Rei pulled again against the water, narrowly slipping out, running toward Michiru with everything she had, charging another fireball.

Michiru turned, finally, and looked at her. "There are no rules, Mars. Remember." A coil of water slid around Rei's neck and dragged her into the pool, rei kicking and fighting, the water holding her tighter and tighter, her lungs screaming out in pain and hunger, her mind racing with disbelief that Michiru was going to be the one to end her life. A dark cloud settled on the edges of her vision. Not much longer now. The sunlight streamed in through the water, dappling the pool floor with a delicate lace pattern. Rei tried to enjoy it, some subtle beauty at the end of her life, when suddenly, the water released her.

She rushed to the top of the pool, gasping desperately. There was a splash next to her, arms around her, trying to help her to the edge but really doing more harm than good, hanging off of her.

"Rei, I'll help you!" The voice was singular.

Rei panicked instantly. "Usagi, you can't be in the pool! Get away before she kills you! She'll kill you!' But when she looked around, Michiru was gone, simply her girls standing at the water's edge, Mina and Hotaru standing on the other side of the gate, Mina giving nothing but a half-hearted shrug.

And Nephrite's body floating next to her.


	4. Chapter 4: Endgame

The sky was grey, and it set Rei on edge. The last thing they needed was for it to rain. Michiru, was going to kill Kunzite, no matter how many of them she had to kill to get to him—Rei had started to accept that as an absolute statement of fact, despite Usagi's insistence that they could convince Michiru to play nice with the other kids.

No. Not Michiru. Neptune.

That's what Mina had said, under her breath, a mix of fear and reverence in her voice as she and Hotaru turned away from the fray, her sword still unsheathed. Mina had saved her, Usagi had reported, eyes sparkling, telling Rei this meant they were still on the same side.

Rei hadn't the heart to tell her that not letting Neptune kill her was hardly an endorsement of teamwork.

But still they sat, posted at all edges, watching Kunzite, blissfully unaware that his life was in danger. Rei wondered at the wisdom of it, if fighting Neptune was worth it to save this scrubby college boy who would be a general. A general for the opposition, no less. Or that was what Mina had said, and Rei admitted, she sensed something inside him. Evil or good, she wasn't sure—life is rarely that simple. She doubted Neptune cared.

She wasn't even sure she did.

Her musings were interrupted by a scream, Usagi begging Michiru to come back, to stop what she was doing.

Michiru regarded her coldly, and with a flick of her hand, the fountain by the city park exploded, a jet of water screaming into the air. She directed it as if painting a landscape, twin streams winding themselves around Usagi and Kunzite. She never turned to face Kunzite, seemingly bored with the entire operation, simply blew to water into his face, down into his lungs, and sat patiently on a park bench, reading leftover newspaper as his body endured its last struggles.

Mako and Pluto raced forward, but fell back with a dull thud, enclosed by a bubble of energy, Hotaru standing, head held high, capturing them like bugs under a glass. Mako called down her lightning before Pluto could stop her, and the force danced around the bubble like an unlikely snowglobe, throwing them both to the ground.

Hotaru shook her head. "Don't. You'll just hurt yourselves."

Pluto looked up at her from the concrete and offered a weak smile. "You've gotten very good at that, Hotaru."

Hotaru looked away to where Mina had Rei tackled onto the grass, the two of them struggling to gain dominance over the other, teeth gritted in competition.

Mina's spark flew to her fingertips, and she touched Rei's forehead. Immediately, she was blown back, curled onto the grass, the first instance in her life that her own pwer had ever been visited upon her. Haruka's cold, grey body lay in front of her, the tearing in her chest as fresh as the day it had happened, a sob breaking from her throat. The flash of every one of Rei's tiny rejections lumped into one great punch into her gut, emptying her inside until she felt hollow. Every failure, every loss laid bare within her.

She pushed it back, her forehead heavy with sweat, her shoulders still slumped, panting. "I gotta use that with a little more hesitation." She staggered to her feet just in time to hear fire hydrants popping around her, Kunzite's body neatly deposited at Michiru's feet. "Hey, good job, Michi!"

Then she noticed the water wound around the other Senshi, including Hotaru, holding them in the air as they squirmed against it, Rei's fireballs extinguishing against the sheer force as she yelled profanities at Michiru, Mako letting off a string of threats in every language she knew. She looked up, and Michiru had Usagi held in front of her, rising from her bench to walk toward.

"Michiru, what are you doing?"

But she could not or would not hear, just slowly walked toward Usagi. Her voice had changed, echoing and almost metallic in its coolness. "She died because of you. Because you are weak. Because you are soft."

Mina gave a soft gasp. "Fuck." She began to run toward Michiru.

"I never wanted Haruka to get hurt! I never wanted anyone to—" She cried out as a wave struck her sharply across the face.

"Someone must suffer to build a kingdom, Princess. She was your subject! In what way did you protect her? You set her comrade against her!"

"Michiru, please—"

Mina closed her eyes, ignoring the burning in her legs, just hoping, hoping, she could run fast enough, she could concentrate hard enough, she could save her princess from the creature unleashed. She jumped.

She had just recently promised to be more judicious with her power, but, she figured, that was a promise that could be started tomorrow, and she thought of Haruka's death, focusing it into Michiru with everything she could muster. The spark jumped, and an inhuman scream came from Michiru, the water seeming to explode, throwing all of them to the ground.

Mina popped her head up. "Usagi?"

Usagi sat, shivering where she had been dropped near the bench, Michiru nowhere to be seen. Mina drew her arms around Usagi. "It's okay now. She's gone."

There was a thundering of feet behind her as the other girls fussed around Usagi.

Rei put her hands on her hips, her face burning with anger. "Are you happy now, Mina!?"

Mina stood up to face her. "Hey, didn't cause this, okay? Michiru was doing fine until fucking Mako decided to stab Haruka in the chest."

Ami hollered at Mina from Usagi's side. "It was an accident!"

Mako frowned, her eyes faraway.

"Girls!" Pluto's voice was firm, and had the bearing of years she rarely used against them. "We cannot let her divide us." Her voice softened, kind once more. "If we have any hope of returning Michiru to us, we have to tap into that better side of ourselves."

"What do you mean, return her? She's gone over the wall." Rei crossed her arms. "We have to kill her."

"What is unbound can be put right again." She looked over. "Can't it, Mina?"

Mina sighed, and nodded.

* * *

The aquarium was nearly empty, strange for a hot afternoon, but the Kaiohs did not notice as they meandered the halls. They did not see people, not in the real way, only as roadblocks and unruly crowds, and so the silence struck them not as eerie but as exclusive, the world in readiness for their arrival.

The dark blue room was empty, save for the girl with teal hair standing in front of the great window into the tank, nearly forty feet of ocean towering above her small frame. They walked up behind her, never couching their movements in silence the way she did, pleased to have the world hear of their arrival.

"Michiru." Her father spoke first, always the first word, always driving the meeting. Everything was a meeting. Everything is about the strength of your position, Michiru, you must never betray weakness, no hair out of place, no need for assistance. "We've been so concerned."

"Yes Father, I, too, have read the papers." She crossed her arms, gazing into the blue. "Your stockholders must be very concerned that this family tragedy will leave you slow to act in business."

"We will, of course, thank the media in assisting us in finding you."

"Of course you will, you need to alert the company that the crisis is over."

"Michiru, you're not feeling yourself." Her mother's voice was clear and full of judgment. "I know she was your childhood sweetheart, however—"

"She took me here often, you know." She smiled. "She told me she knew I loved the sea. Her favorite exhibit was the otters, always. She could watch them for hours. But this," She casually referenced the glowering bubble in front of them, "This was mine. All the ocean contained in a single glass arc."

Ryuji furrowed his brow. "Michiru, we heard about your home. You can't possibly expect the company to pay for that."

His mother interrupted. "No, of course not, she'll be moving home. After a brief…vacation, to relax. There's a wonderful facility upstate, with horseback riding, and a spa—"

"You were always so cruel to her." Michiru did not turn from the glass, staring at the fish, her eyes lazily following a shark overhead. "It was so foolish, really. If you had shown her even the slightest kindness, the slightest affection, she would have been your most utterly devoted child." She sighed and lowered her eyes back to the reef in front of her and shook her head. "That was all she wanted, after all. Kindness. Affection." She turned from them and walked away from the encapsulated abyss. "But I suppose I shouldn't be too terribly surprised, you rarely gave that to your own children, and then only if we had earned it as Odysseus earned his homecoming."

"Because you are grieving, I will forgive this." Her father wore the same cool expression that marked all of her childhood.

"Remarkable that you still think your forgiveness means anything to me."

Her mother's voice followed her. "Your attempt to make us feel guilty over the death of your lover—"

Michiru whipped around, teeth bared. "She had a name!"

Her family stood, standing, for once all three of them lost for words, Ryuji's wife looking at her with sorrow in her eyes but saying nothing.

"I do not require that you feel guilt nor innocence. I have already judged and found you guilty, and I, too, have the luxury of carrying out your sentence." Her eyebrow flicked at Ryuji's wife. "I apologize that the sins of your husband have been visited upon you, but as my family often reminded me, when one selects a mate for life, one. Should. Take. Care."

They did not have time to protest. In a snap of her fingers, there was a great shattering sound, as if the earth itself was a glass orb dashed upon a marble floor. The water roared out of the great tank, falling in a solid wall dotted with bright colors of each individual fish, silver scales of barracudas descending like a waterfall within the sea, collapsing in one great heap upon her family, her hand casually holding the space around her at bay.

She turned on her heel and headed back toward the door as people came rushing down the hallway, a smile of true happiness on her face. She was so distracted, she did not notice her sister until she grabbed her arm.

"Oh Naoko, what a pleasant surprise." She giggled.

"You told me to meet you—"

"I've decided to leave you the family business. Use it in good health, my sweet, weak sister." She turned loose and strode away, Naoko not knowing what to think, her eyes following her.

"Michiru? What did you do?"

* * *

"She drowned her parents, Mina."

Mina glanced at the newspaper. Aquarium Accident Invites Tragedy for Kaiohs. "Hm. It's about time someone did."

"I know you think this is funny, but she's dangerous." Rei sat down across from Mina at the table. "She's not Michiru anymore. She's Neptune." She was a certain resignation in her tone, a sadness for someone not gone but already lost.

Mina shook her head. "It's much worse than that, fireball." She sighed heavily, her fingers brushing the edge of the table, following the trim. "I don't know what you remember about the Silver Millennium. But I remember Neptune. She was deadly, and she was harsh, and she was calculating. But she was also a free agent, more or less. Bound to no one and nothing." She looked back up at Rei. 'She's didn't love Uranus. Didn't even like her, from what I remember."

Rei leaned forward. She remembered bits and pieces, but that detail had been lost on her. Or had she simply known Haruka and Michiru so well that she had made assumptions about Uranus and Neptune? "Exactly how well did Haruka take that?"

"Yeah, I sat down that emotionally fragile spaghetti noodle and said, 'hey, you know the one person who defines 90% of your self-esteem? The thing inside her thought the thing inside you was a fucking waste of space.' That happened. It went great."

Rei laughed in spite of herself. "I'm guessing you never told her you thought she was too."

"Not me." She was firm. "Venus. I think you're missing that essential part here. Mars wasn't that different from you, maybe a little more petty and jealous, maybe a little more violent, maybe a little less likely to stare at my ass all day, but she wasn't a monster like Venus. Or Neptune."

Rei was so taken aback by the idea that she forgot to protest Mina's assumptions about her ass-staring. "So I'm right. She is Neptune."

"If you'd stop talking and let me fucking explain." Mina gestured toward her, eyes focused. "Whatever Michiru is now, is some horrifying blend. Neptune wouldn't be targeting people who hurt Haruka. She has all of Neptune's power and all of Michiru's devotion. You missed this—" she threw down the center section of the newspaper, rei poring over it, trying to pick up the clue. Mina pointed at a small article. 6 Drown in City Reservoir, Tainted Drugs Suspected.

"She's drowning random people now?"

"Not quite random." Mina took the paper back. "Haruka's mother was one of the six. But you, she doesn't care if bystanders die anymore."

Rei looked up at her. "So you think she'll try for Mako next?"

"I don't know about next, but Mako's gotta be on her list. Worse, she's proven Usagi is, and I'm not sure I can get the drop on her again." Mina leaned back in the chair. "Michiru's never been bad at fighting, but with Neptune set free inside her, we're all going to have to work together."

Rei chuckled. "At least Usagi will be happy we're all back together, I guess."

Mina stared off into the distance, toying with the edge of her hair. "I don't know how to appeal to her, how to speak to her. I hardly knew how to talk to her when she was only half an inhuman sea witch." She sighed. "I don't know what to do, Rei."

Rei felt a twang of sympathy rise in her chest. Mina took so much upon herself, forced herself to take the greatest burdens of their duties alone, so that the other girls could feel as if they had more freedom. She would never admit to this, of course—and Rei had never thought to thank her. It was strange, seeing her admit to not knowing a course of action, to see her unsure and a little scared. She longed to reach out to her, to comfort her, to take her into her arms and let her know that they would stand side by side in this battle.

But she could not. What she could do, however, is take the burden of choice off of her shoulders.

"I know what we should do."

Mina looked up at her expectantly, ready to accept advice. "What?"

"Usagi's not gonna like it at all, but she can't argue we're jumping the gun at least." She drummed her fingers on the table. "maybe we just won't tell her."

"Rei, what?"

"We have to kill Michiru."


	5. Chapter 5: Shah Mat

Usagi looked at the table, staring through it as if it would open a hole that would let her escape into another world, a world where none of this had ever happened, where things had never gotten so ugly, where the decisions she had made were not being brought back to her doorstep, baring new teeth and claws.

"Usagi, I know you don't like it, but we have to." Rei spoke with authority, her mind decided and set as concrete.

"There has to be…"

"There's not." Mina did not let her finish. "She's killing innocent people, Usagi. She's lost control. You don't have to be there, Usagi."

Pluto looked down at Mina, her voice somewhere between sorrow and determination. "Mina, you could perhaps help her. You know what it is to keep something like this controlled, I know that you can help her."

Mina took a sip of her soda, a crooked smile and flicked eyebrow punctuating her face. "I think your faith in me is a little misplaced. I've never gone this far off-leash." She looked around, suddenly aware that she was speaking about the spectre of Venus lurking inside of her in front of her army. "And I'm stronger than Michiru. And we're not talking about me."

Mako stood up from the table. "I started this." She rested her hand on the table, biting her bottom lip. "It should be me."

"It's gonna have to be all of us." Mina shook her head. "Not that I don't appreciate your willingness to kill yourself for the greater good, I've been missing that lack of self-preservation since Haruka died." She regretted it as soon as it came out of her mouth, each girl wincing visibly at those three syllables. Mina was the one to break the silence, though her voice was now a swift mumble. "Anyway, Michiru's too strong for one of us."

"Has anyone really tried to speak to her?" There was a note of panic in her voice as the tide in the room turned, a quiet, almost imperceptible drift toward the decision, and Pluto could not control it. "Mina, think of the waste of a soldier!"

"She's no good to me now, Plu. I'm sorry." The apology, for once, sounded genuine.

But Pluto felt a rare, desperate rage surface in her. "And what do you think Haruka would say to you about this?"

Mina leapt to her feet. Pluto was much taller than she, but in the moment it did not seem to matter, a small ball of fury at her feet, finger sharply pointed in her face "I don't KNOW what Haruka would say, Pluto, because she's fucking DEAD, because YOU and the rest of them didn't have the fucking STRENGTH to DO what needed to be DONE!" She whirled around and slammed her fist against the table, shaking it, swallowing hard and pinching the bridge of her nose, trying to deny the grief that rose up in her throat, the tears at the edge of her vision. She took a deep breath and growled at Pluto. "I am tired of everyone thinking this is a democracy around here! STAND. DOWN. SOLDIER."

"Of course, Commander Venus." She nodded and stepped back toward the door.

"Fuck you." The words flung like an arrow, and Pluto recoiled, her momentary rage abating and leaving her open to the subtle hurts humanity aimed so well.

Hotaru regarded her with a momentary sadness, but tugged on the edge of her hair and scowled. "Are we done with the soap opera or…?"

Rei huffed. "We need a plan. She won't go down easy."

Mina tossed her hair and smiled, shrugging in an air of false cheer. "The only person she'd have gone down easy for's gone!" The joke fell flat into a sea of silence.

Usagi whimpered.

* * *

Mako stepped forward, the willing and able distraction for Michiru. She buried her spear into the sand, her eyes uncommitted to that task, suddenly.

Her voice wavered. "I'm sorry, Michiru. I'm sorry I made you this way." She picked the spear back up. "I'm sorry I have to be the one to fix it."

Michiru looked up at her, her eyes hollow, almost glowing with power and rage sorrow. "Would that I could believe it. I do hope you felt something, in the moment that you killed her. When you left her to die."

Mako shook her head fiercely, looking down at the sand, her teeth gritted. "I didn't do that. I didn't leave her to die. I was there." She looked back up at Michiru, a look of sad resolve on her face. "She just kept asking for you."

Michiru gave a kind of hiccup, the thought hitting her brain in one painful instant, for a moment an ordinary girl with her pain laid bare, and Mako took her chance, jumping forward, spear in hand. Ami and Hotaru watched from their posts in front of Usagi, the last lines of defense if everything else failed.

Michiru caught herself, the wave hitting Mako and smashing her into the rocks like a lost ship in a storm. Mako grasped at the sand, her vision blurred, her head pounding, the light too much to bear. In a final act of desperation, she called down the electricity from the sky, guided only by a firm feeling that this could be the last thing she did on this earth, caught between wanting to live and believing she deserved to die.

And certainly, if she deserved to die at any hand, it was Michiru's.

Mako threw the lightning with everything she had, but Michiru effortlessly called up a wave of water, dissipating it into the sea, a few fish bubbling up dead near the strike. She just as easily discarded the water back into the ocean, continuing her slow, measured march toward Mako. Mako closed her eyes, silently preparing herself for her last moments. Drowning wouldn't have been her first choice. She heard the saltwater tore up your lungs, that the pain was agonizing.

But, she supposed, Haruka's first choice hadn't likely been a spear between her ribs. Drowning would, at least, be quicker.

From her perch on high, Rei trained her arrow, visualizing the strike, the clear twang going through her mind as she prepared to loose the arrow. 'I'm sorry, Michiru." She softly breathed, her one finger on the string barely stopping it when she heard Mina call out.

"STOP." Mina's eyes were wild with desperation, and she signaled all the girls to lower their weapons, running out in front of her, blocking Rei's shot. "Michiru, you don't want to do this, I know you don't."

Michiru laughed. "I assure you, I do."

Mina shook her head firmly. "You'd have done it already. You wouldn't be waiting for us to come at you, playing with it. You're smarter than that, I've seen you fight."

"What you know of me could fit inside a thimble, little girl."

"Michiru! Do you know why I brought you here? This is where you and Haruka used to picnic. You were so happy here, and so was she. Michiru, there's literally an entire ocean here, we're trapped by the geography, you could sit back and read a book while we all drowned, but you didn't, because you know Mako never meant to hurt Haruka, because you know Usagi would never have ordered it. Because you loved this place and can't sully it with something Haruka would have hated. Because you're our friend and you don't want to do it."

Pluto's eyes widened in hope.

Rei threw her head back dramatically. "We are all. Going. To die. WOULD YOU NOT GIVE HER TIPS?"

Mina didn't even register Rei's voice, "You act so cold, but I know different, Michiru! I've seen you! I saw you every day with Haruka." She said her name in every sentence, like a spell that could cast out the demon. Haruka. Haruka. Haruka.

"Don't."

"I saw how you took care of her, how you loved her. I know there's something warm in you, something really human, and that's still there. Or you wouldn't hurt like this."

"Everything I'm doing is for Haruka!" The sea rose up and misted over the rocks, as if splitting with rage, roaring with each wave.

"No, you're not! You're doing this because you're pissed off!" She looked into Michiru's eyes, swirling now like a whirlpool. "Do you think this is what Haruka would want her legacy to be? For fuck's sake, do you just lack imagination, or what? Your family pulled in some several hundred million last year, Michiru, there's all this stuff you could do with your money. Start a charity or something in Haruka's name, save the Harukas of tomorrow. What would her life would have been like if someone had made sure the kids on the track team got food boxes to take home, or if teachers could tell you who needs new jeans? You're punishing all these people for not taking care of Haruka, but you're not fixing anything." Mina shrugged casually, her voice dropping once again into the familiar comedic patter "Hell, open a school for wayward butch girls, you're rich enough."

Michiru's face softened, and she looked at Mina, almost pleading. "I could…" She shook her head. 'I murdered my brother and parents, there's no going back."

"Yeah, everyone's gonna believe you killed your folks with your magical mermaid powers." Mina laughed. "Besides, they had it coming, trust. Michiru. C'mon. You don't have to do this."

Michiru stepped forward, but then recoiled back, her voice the odd echo of Neptune once again. "And what concern have you ever had for me? This isn't for my benefit! This isn't about me at all!" The spray flew up behind her and looked poised to strike.

"You're right." Her voice was soft, as if to verify anything Michiru said pained her. "It's about Haruka. It's the way I think she'd rather be remembered. It's what she'd want me to do." Mina walked toward her, the other girls now standing in a huddle around Usagi, Mako still reeling from the fight. "Michiru, I know what it's like to have a monster inside you. I've been fighting it my whole life. It doesn't have to win. I can help you. Just let me."

Michiru looked at her, shaking her head. "Haruka's gone."

"I know. It sucks." She walked toward Michiru slowly, as if she was trying not to startle a deer. "But we can make sure no one ever forgets her. I promise."

There was a moment, there, where Michiru hung her head, the sea now laid down still and quiet, a look sadness on her face, of loss, and of hurt, and Mina got a glimpse of the child she must have been, the times she must have been spurned in her pursuit of affection and acceptance, how she had slowly killed every part of herself that cried out for those things, twisting herself into something hard and unbreakable. She was nothing like Haruka, who let herself keep getting kicked. She learned.

She was more like Mina.

It was a dark thought, but not an untrue one, and as Mina held her hand out to Michiru, she saw a chance to forgive Michiru for all the things that she was, to forgive herself for every mistake she'd made, for them to build together something better, and in a strange way, to be more affected by Haruka's singleminded desire to do what was right and good than either of them had ever been in life. It was that rare moment of divine forgiveness that Mina had head spoken of so many times but never felt for herself.

Michiru looked up at her, and gave a weak smile. Her eyes, for the first time Mina could remember, were just green. And she held out her hand, just barely touching the edge of Mina's fingers.

And then Michiru recoiled, the sea flaring in her eyes once more, the waves roiling up behind as if the rage in her body could not be contained, her voice loud and booming.

"You sent her to her death! You were the command, you were supposed to protect her!"

Mina's eyes narrowed. "You can kill me if you want, Squidward, but I'm telling you now, it will never, ever be enough." She drew her sword. "Bring it."

There was a sharp clash between the two of them, and Mina managed a short swipe, nearly grazing her cheek, before the wall of water hit her. Rei grabbed Usagi and started to run, wondering where they could take her that Michiru could not find them, her mind racing as the water swirled around and blocked their exit. Her eyes searched for something, anything, beginning to panic, knowing that even all of them together could not match her power.

And then the sea fell.

Rei looked back behind her, Mina lay on the sand, hurt but still conscious and struggling to her feet. Mako was stumbling behind she and Usagi, Ami supporting her. Pluto stood, her face pressed sadly to her rod buried in the sand, looking down at a set of tiny footsteps crossing the secluded cove. Her eyes followed upward to Michiru dazed and far away, the point of the glaive visible through her middle, Hotaru breathing hard, hands shaking, but still firm in her stance. She withdrew the glaive, and it made a sickening sucking sound that echoed through the rocks.

Michiru fell to her knees, and looked back at Hotaru. "A tactician."

"Not really." She shook her head. "I had a shot, and I took it." She circled around to Michiru's front. "I had to do it. You taught me to."

Michiru looked up at her, a motherly look of regret. "I am so sorry that every adult who was meant to protect you, failed you"

Hotaru did not rise to the comment, trying to put every good memory she had of Michiru out of her mind. "I guess we're even now."

Michiru chuckled darkly. "Fair is fair, I suppose we are." She slumped to the side, and her look turned to one of pleading. "Do you think Haruka will forgive me?"

Hotaru knelt in front of her. "I know she will. She's like that."

"Yes. You were always more like me." She touched Hotaru's face. "Don't be. That is my deathbed wish, Hotaru, that you are nothing like me."

"Okay, Michiru-mama. Okay."

There's a good girl." She withdrew her hand and looked up at the sky lying down gracefully in the sand and closing her eyes. "Mina." It was as a call to action, a command, almost.

"What?" She called from her place on the sand.

"Do better."

"That's impressively vague, care to elaborate, Princess?"

But no answer came in response, no final clarification of the rules of game. Usagi cried out as Michiru's life dissipated from her, just a young socialite dead on the sand, nothing impressive about her except as a final note to the tragedy of an old family who would later be accused of having been in league with the devil, of purchasing cursed jewels, and a slew of other myths that good never touch the strangeness of reality.

And the sea roared in Mina's ears.

* * *

Mina's shorts were longer than she liked, longer than anyone liked, she thought, but Rei had drilled into her the importance of making a decent impression on the slew of middle-aged people they dealt with at the school, and how her favorite pair of daisy dukes was unlikely to do that. She stood in front of the mirror in the girls' locker room, looking at herself in the mirror. Rei's reflection appeared behind her, and she smiled.

"Look at me, I look like a very femme Haruka." She put on the pair of aviator sunglasses, too big for her face, but treasured all the same.

Rei assessed her board-strapped white tanktop and her long khaki shorts, and laughed. "You really do. It's frightening. But kinda a good look."

"Did you just compliment me, Rei Hino? Has earth as I know it ceased to exist?" She turned and grinned.

Rei huffed. 'Shut up, Mina. We gotta move these boxes." She picked one up to carry out to the track. "Move it."

Mina had made, the board would later say, a compelling case for Kaioh Industries to start this charity. And she had offered the initial labor to start up, her and the other girls, packing boxes full of food and driving them down to the dilapidated school on the other side of town. She picked up a box and started toward the hallway, whistling to herself.

She passed a trophy case, medals and ribbons going years back. A big trophy caught her eye. Haruka Tenoh. Girls' All-state. The year and event blurred, and it took her a moment to realize it was from her tears. She set down the box, wiping them away and cleaning the smudge from her sunglasses. Had it been three months already? It hardly seemed like it could be. Some nights she woke up, thinking it was still a dream.

Rei called to her from down the hall. "I'm not doing this for my health, Peaches!"

"Coming, my angel buttercup!" She set the old sunglasses on top of her head, and picked up the box, laughing at Rei's growl in the distance. She nodded her head. "I did better."

Not a better leader. Just better.


End file.
